My piece is a mixed media Cloak – It is woven from cotton with an outer skin of media pieces from local newspapers.
The inspiration came from the unbalanced coverage of Whanganui issues in the media, from the “H” issue, school bullying, the DHB sagas, murder investigations, gang patch ban and Mayor Laws’ use of the media to self promote, leading to an unbalanced, one sided, outside view.
The inner cloak is made using Maori finger weaving techniques representing the core or inner person, but the media pieces are glued and tacked on representing the more superficial and hopefully temporary perception or world view.
When Whanganui is represented negatively in the media all of us who live here have to wear it, whether it is accurate, fair and truly news worthy or not. While this cloak and the text on it are specific to Whanganui it also reflects, how I feel, Maori issues are covered in the media generally.
The quality of what is inside is obscured by what is seen from the outside. What we wear close to our hearts, although concealed, is the most important and is the truth.
